Antoine Walker broke, arrested for writing bad checks: Antoine Walker entered the NBA's maximum-contract financial elite in 1999, the year Boston signed him to a six-year, $71 million deal. As Rick Pitino, then the Celtics president and coach, put it, Walker "will never have to worry about money again in his life." Pitino's prediction, like so many things about his tenure with the Green, proved way off the mark.

Brian Cashman: The Bad Lieutenant: Matt Taibbi rips Cashman as only Taibbi can: They all made a show of preferring some other situation before quietly, somberly almost, taking the big money and going to New York. Basically, Brian Cashman hired a team full of Brian Cashmans, i.e., guys who passed up the girl they really liked to marry the Boss's bucktoothed, cross-eyed daughter.

Casino Host and Wingman to the All-Stars: Mr. Jones generally travels with a large group of friends as well as the athletes, and it frequently expands to 20 strong. Mr. Jones always elects one local friend to be his "chief of staff," charged with making sure everyone in the group is trustworthy and preventing stragglers from glomming on.

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Men's Luger Killed in Training Crash at Winter Olympics Track

grum: The problem with "blaming" the course design is that a person won't normally be able to pop out of the course at that point. It was a fluke.

But this course wasn't normal, was it? The designers, safety officials and various international bodies deserve all the blame for designing a course to be the fastest ever, placing steel girders right next to the track, then ignoring safety concerns.

"The International Luge Federation [FIL] is where Formula One was 40 years ago the whole mindset is wrong," he said.

Echoing his views, Sir Jackie Stewart, the three-time Formula One world champion, said that the sport of luge had been lucky not to have lost more athletes, given the lack of attention to basic safety precautions. "I think the sport has, fortunately, got off for years without too many fatalities or very serious injuries," Stewart said.

The Scot, who has been a tireless campaigner for improvements in safety in motor sport, said that he was very surprised that the track designers in Canada had clearly not considered the possibility of a luger leaving the track, out of control. "It was clear to me that whoever designed the track hadn't seen the potential of either an athlete or a sled getting out of the race track, because at 90mph the dynamics of it are incredible, never mind the human factor," Stewart said. "Clearly it was almost impossible for the luger to miss hitting one of the metal girders on the edge of the racing line because of the angle at which he came off."

Stewart was amazed to see that alongside the Whistler track were unprotected girders on to which the Georgian luger was flung, causing fatal head injuries.

"Had it been motor sport, there would have been a debris fence [chain-link fencing], to stop a sled or a rider from coming into contact with those sort of structures," he said. "If that was in place the luger would have suffered serious injuries because of the speed of the impact, but the elasticity in the fencing would have enabled him to survive."

Men's Luger Killed in Training Crash at Winter Olympics Track

Men's Luger Killed in Training Crash at Winter Olympics Track

Ah yes, grum, because the most important thing right now is national pride and reputation, yes? What did you expect - that an accident like this is going to end in accolades? People screwed up, badly, and there will be a lot of hell to pay for that.

Over on Metafilter comes word that the course designers called the corner "50/50," meaning only half the competitors would make the corner.

Christopher Hitchens: Sports Bring Out the Worst in Humanity

Oh man, now I LOVE the Polish pole vaulter photo. From Wikipedia:

In Poland, the Bras d'honneur became known as the "Kozakiewicz's gesture" (gest Kozakiewicza). Kozakiewicz made the gesture on July 30, 1980 to Russian spectators in the stadium during the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. The crowd supporting Soviet jumper Konstantin Volkov booed, hissed, jeered, and whistled during Kozakiewicz's spectacular performance. Having just secured his gold medal position, Kozakiewicz made the gesture in defiance to the Soviet crowd. He later confirmed his dominance over the competition by breaking the world record, clearing at 5.78 meters.

The photos of this incident circled the globe, with the exception of the Soviet Union and its satellites. While international observers varied in their reaction to the incident, Kozakiewicz's act received much support in Polish society, which resented Soviet control over Eastern Europe. After the 1980 Olympics ended, the Soviet ambassador to Poland demanded that Kozakiewicz be stripped of his medal over his "insult to the Soviet people". The official response of the Polish government was that the gesture had been an involuntary muscle spasm caused by his exertion.

Christopher Hitchens: Sports Bring Out the Worst in Humanity

The article is an instant classic on the basis of that lead photo alone:

It's also hard to dislike this shot, particularly after reading the caption:

At the 1980 summer Games, Polish pole vaulter Wladyslaw Kozakiewicz made a rude gesture to the Moscow crowd after setting a new world record. The image shot around the world and to many, signified Polish resentment of Russia's control over Eastern Europe.